BA(hons), MA(hons), PhD

Biography

I have undergraduate and masters degrees in Sociology and Film, TV and Media Studies and a PhD in Geography from the University of Auckland. Following my PhD I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asia Research Institute (2007-2009) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography (2009-2011) at the National University of Singapore. I joined the School of Environment in December 2011.

I have broad interests in theoretically informed and empirically substantive urban, social and cultural geographies. Within these areas I engage with a range of theoretical approaches to transnationalism, relational notions of space and place, territory, (im)mobilities, embodiment, and materiality. I have experience conducting research in New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Singapore, and have broad interests in the Asia-Pacific.

Research | Current

The primary focus of my recent research is exploring the intersection of transnational migration and urban form and experience. In straightforward terms we can conceive of cities as the location for the majority of international, and often internal, migrants in the world today. Cities in this sense play an important role in migration as nodal points in global networks of transportation and telecommunications, sites of community formation, and spaces and places of settlement and incorporation. Migrants and the communities they belong are also perceived to have palpable effects on the everyday landscapes of cities through their presence and practices. Conceptually, the focus on migratory processes and urban form also raises interesting questions about the intersection of mobilities and the supposed stability associated with cities. In my research I am principally interested in questions related to the ways that mobile lives become part of different urban spaces, the lived experience of different parts of cities, the structuring of migrant lives through urban form and materiality, the role of migrants in the emergence of relations between places, and the significance of migration for the public life of cities.

Current and recent research projects:

Nation and Migration: population mobilities, desires and state practices in 21st century New Zealand (2015-2020)

This five year programme of research examines the relationship between nation and migration in the context of increasing mobility, temporariness and circularity through three studies that address the changing patterns of migration into New Zealand, the trans-Tasman mobility of New Zealanders, and the role of migration in governmental imaginings and enacments of national futures. The programme is funded through a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

The first study examines the mobility patterns and desires of new temporary migrants in three regional employment sectors that are commonly viewed as critical to national futures: trades workers in the Canterbury rebuild; dairy workers in Waikato; and nurses in the Auckland public health system. The second project mirrors the first in exploring mobility patterns and desires of both native and naturalised trans-Tasman migrants in the urban agglomerations of Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. The final project builds on these migrant understandings of nation and future to explore the govermental approach to different modes of migration in to, out of and through New Zealand focusing particularly on how migration is enlisted in visions for national future, the significance of diaspora and the political projects that seek to work on these populations.

An exploration of new forms of temporary migration in New Zealand with a specific focus on their implications for urban life in Auckland. The central premise of this study is that the emerging policy focus on temporary status as a precursor to permanent settlement in New Zealand and other settler societies is reworking the socio-political context, lived experience and future potential of migration. Project funded by a grant from the University of Auckland.

The urban/digital nexus: Participation, belonging and social media in Auckland (2013-2014)

This mixed method project will explore the use of social media and other forms of information communication technologies by refugee and other diasporic communities who are at once both ‘connected/mobile and emplaced/embodied’. This information will be used to map and assess the extent to which digital participation and networking supports and enhances social participation and social cohesion in urban settings. Research team: Jay Marlowe (Education), Allen Bartley (Education), Francis Collins (Geography), Gerry Cotterell (COMPASS). Seed funding: 'Transforming Cities' thematic research initiative

Globalising Universities and International Student Mobilities in East Asia (2009-2012)

Mobility, Social Difference and Urban Incorporation: emergent experiences and responses to diversity in the Seoul Metropolitan Region (2008-2013)

This project explores the urban geographies of different temporary migrants ('migrant workers' and 'English teachers') in the Seoul Metropolitan Region, focusing on the role of governmental regulation in shaping mobilities, the aspirations of different migrant subjects and articulation of migration into the transformation of urban spaces. The project has been supported by funding received from the Korea Foundation, National University of Singapore and University of Auckland.

Teaching | Current

Graduate

GEOG714: Population, Mobilities and Wellbeing

Postgraduate supervision

PhD Candidates

Hayley Sparks (PhD, Geography in progress) - Geographies of Privilege: Exploring the lifeworlds, experiences and identities of ‘privileged’ children in Auckland (main supervisor with Robin Kearns)

Public Art and Public Space; Karaoke and Transnational Identities; Airport Geographies; Animals and Television Advertisements; Cruise Ships as Assemblage; Childhood Memories and Place Attachment; home-making and return migration; the city in Batman films, vertical/skyscraper geographies; TV drama and migrant mobilities in China

Areas of expertise

Committees/Professional groups/Services

International Encyclopedia of Geography, Section Editor (Wiley and Association of American Geographers)

Social and Cultural Geography, Editorial Board Member

ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, Editorial Board Member

Palgrave Communications, Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member

New Zealand Geographical Society

Association of American Geographers

Service Roles - University of Auckland

International Comittee (2014-2016)

School of Environment, Research Comittee

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Gordon, R., Collins, F. L., & Kearns, R. (2017). ‘It is the People that Have Made Glen Innes’: State-led Gentrification and the Reconfiguration of Urban Life in Auckland. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 41 (5), 767-785. 10.1111/1468-2427.12567Other University of Auckland co-authors: Robin Kearns